When I first read that 12 political parties had formed a loose alliance to confront Prime Minister Anwar's reign, my first thought was of the reign of Manchester United during the time that it was managed by Sir Alex Ferguson.
The second thought that occurred in my mind was a scene from the movie Sivaji the Boss. In the movie, the hero Sivaji, played by Rajnikanth, will find himself captured by perhaps a dozen henchmen. When one of them taunts him by saying it is such a pity that he had walked into their trap all alone, Sivaji will retort: “Kanna, only (he will mention a species of animal here) will attack in a group. A lion always comes alone.”
But coming back to Sir Alex Ferguson, the decision of 12 political parties—Bersatu, Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air, Ikatan Demokratik Malaysia, Parti Rakyat India Malaysia, Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia, Parti Progresif Penduduk Malaysia, Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia, Parti Sosialis Malaysia, Parti Kemajuan Malaysia and Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional, as well as an organisation that has not yet been officially registered called Bersepakat Hak Rakyat Malaysia—to join forces to confront Anwar's reign, suddenly reminded me of how in the heyday of Manchester United under the leadership of Sir Alex Ferguson, all the other fans of the other clubs in the English Premier League would also combine forces to form the anti-MU fan club. At that time, regardless of whether you were a fan of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or whoever else, all of you would congregate to watch Manchester United play, just to cheer for them to lose.
Alex Ferguson led Manchester United for a remarkable 27 years. In the first four years of his stewardship, he was struggling to find his footing, but from the early 90s onwards, once he had found his footing, Manchester United under his guidance would dominate the game so thoroughly that the club would transform itself from a struggling English side into perhaps the most well-known football club in the entire world, with a string of victories and trophies to its name.
In a way, Anwar's political trajectory since he became the Prime Minister also mirrors Sir Alex's reign in football. Anwar too was struggling in the early years of his reign, to the point that talk of him being toppled was bandied about once every few months in that initial period of his reign.
But now that the Anti-Anwar club has formed, just as the anti-MU club formed at the height of Manchester United's dominance, I suppose the period of struggle is over. Just as it was with Manchester United, now I suppose this is the period of Anwar's dominance, where no one believes that they will be able to challenge his reign on their own. As a last-ditch attempt, they have now resorted to grouping into a loose alliance, just like how the anti-MU club was a loose alliance, in the hopes that it will be strong enough to confront Anwar's dominance.
I think that once all of your opponents have joined forces to oppose you, you are likely just one step away from being an apex winner.
The last apex winner that we had was Mahathir. At his peak, Mahathir too had defeated all of his opponents, to the point that he was literally ruling Malaysia unchallenged in any which way he pleased. At his peak, Mahathir only had perhaps DAP, PAS and Semangat 46 as his challengers, but they too did not oppose him with the confidence that they could ever defeat him. All that they hoped for was to not be crushed while standing in opposition to him, as well as perhaps deny him a 2/3rds majority, which they never succeeded in doing. During that era where Mahathir ruled virtually unchallenged, he was said to be so powerful that he could unilaterally build entire cities or construct the tallest skyscrapers in the world without requiring the consent of anyone else other than himself.
If even the consortium of 12 political parties cannot defeat Anwar, I think that Anwar is going to become like Mahathir in the 90s too—an apex winner that has no one to challenge his dominance or authority in the country.
While I am writing this, it suddenly occurred to me that other than Alex Ferguson and Sivaji the Boss, the situation where Anwar is being challenged by a dozen opponents also reminds me of theBattle of the Ten Kings in the Rig Veda.
We tend to call India as India, but the Indians themselves have another name for their country—they tend to call their country Bharat.
Bharat, by the way, is a cognate of Barat, or the westward direction in the Malay language. The Malays likely used barat to denote the west, because India does indeed lie west of the Malay archipelago.
Anyway, India was likely called Bharat after the Battle of the Ten Kings, which occured many thousands of years ago.
In that battle, the Bharata tribe, led by King Sudas, was confronted by a confederation of 10 tribes, whom he would miraculously defeat, supposedly with the aid of the gods.
I suppose when you win a major battle, you can say anything you want - including that the gods are on your side - and everyone will just believe you, simply because nobody will dare to challenge you.
King Sudas's victory was noted in the Rig Veda, the oldest known work in the Sanskrit language, and it is from his victory that the first state or polity emerged in India. This polity, Bharat, which took the name of his tribe, would later become the founding state of India, just as how the Malacca Sultanate was the founding state of Malaya.
I suppose the Dasarajna Yuddha, or the Battle of the Ten Kings—which many believe to be the kernel of the great Indian epic the Mahabharata—came to my mind when I thought about the coalition of 12 political parties coming together to oppose Anwar's reign, because I too am inclined to believe that if Anwar scatters the confederation of 12 political parties, just as King Sudas scattered the 10 tribes that opposed him, he too will establish a new era of Malaysian history.
A new era of history is born when the old era is forgotten.
Sudas was certainly not the first king of the Bharatas, nor was it the case that India had no history before he won the battle of the 10 kings. However, because he started a new era, we only know of him and his version of history, while the reign of those before him and the version of history according to his opponents have all been lost to time.
In the same way that King Sudas established a new era of history for the Indians after scattering his 10 foes, I reckon maybe Anwar will do the same too, if he succeeds in scattering his 12 opponents. Once he succeeds, the reign of those before him will slowly be swallowed by time, and the version of history by his opponents will also disappear from the memory of the people.
A few generation down the line, it will be as if the history of Malaysia started from the reign of Anwar and the Unity Government.
As they say. there is indeed nothing new under the sun, I suppose. History simply repeats—sometimes in the football field, sometimes in ancient epics, and sometimes in politics - but no whether where it repeats, one thing is a constant - whatever you have heard about in past that keeps reoccurring again in the present, and sets the stage for it to reoccur again in the future.
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